Save children, gorillas, and your junk drawer by recycling small electronics

 I’ll make it easy for you!

An estimated 30,000 children are working in unsafe conditions in coltan mines in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to provide minerals for our cellphones. Ancient rainforests are being rapidly cleared to mine for gold, copper and lithium for our electronics and batteries, destroying habitat for critically endangered Grauer’s gorillas.

(In case you were wondering, if Apple divided up its Q3 2025 profits between those 30,000 children working in the mines, they could give each child $3.1 million. One. Single. Quarter. of profits.)

There are an estimated 762 million old cellphones in American households that are no longer being used, and fewer than 20% of those will ever be recycled.

When I started looking around our house, I found FIVE outdated cellphones that I haven’t recycled even after working for a gorilla conservation organization. I would love to have them stop cluttering up my house, AND I know that every phone that gets recycled means more minerals that DON’T need to mined by children in DRC and more forests that DON’T have to be cleared.

The time has come for me to get rid of my junk, and I invite you to join me. To make it as easy as possible for everyone, I will put a box on my front porch at 491 College St. (across from the school) to collect old phones, tablets, iPods, GPS devices, smartwatches, earbuds, digital cameras, random cords and cables. Please note that laptops are NOT on that list. Sorry.

I will then send them off to EcoCell (https://eco-cell.com/), an organization that recycles small electronics and sends the proceeds to gorilla conservation organizations, on December 10. I will ask them to send the donation to Grace Gorillas (https://gracegorillas.org/), the amazing organization I used to work for that just successfully rewilded 4 Grauer’s gorillas into Virunga National Park from their sanctuary in eastern DRC.

Please note that while EcoCell follows all safety protocols and holds a number of safety certifications, it is always a good idea to factory reset your phone before recycling it to make sure your personal data is wiped.

To learn the procedure for Apple products, visit:
https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/sell-give-away-or-trade-in-your-iphone-iph415eb3fe5/ios

To learn the procedure for wiping data from Android products, visit:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3243253/how-to-securely-erase-your-android-device-in-4-steps.html

If you have any questions, hit me up at jordahl70@nullgmail.com or 720-471-5122